Huge yikes in this story about school surveillance: schools sent teens home with chrome books pre-loaded with Gaggle spyware. Teens plugged their phones into their laptops to charge them. Gaggle sent administrators alerts when teens texted each other nudes https://t.co/SIX1Tdn5PV— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) August 3, 2022

As the post-Roe era underscores the risks of digital surveillance, a new survey shows that teens face increased monitoring from teachers—and police.

Advocates say they speed up queues, but privacy campaigners query whether they are necessary. Facial recognition computers have found an unlikely new niche: scanning the faces of thousands of British pupils in school canteens. On Monday, nine schools in North Ayrshire will start taking payments for school lunches by scanning the faces of pupils, claiming that the new system speeds up queues and is more Covid-secure than the card payments and fingerprint scanners they used previously.

Round-the-clock surveillance of students’ accounts raises tricky privacy concerns. And do they really help keep kids safe?

With remote learning now the norm, universities are using surveillance software to keep tabs on students who are not engaging with their studies